Sly Stone on Letterman, February 21, 1983 (expanded)

Sly's only appearance on Dave. This expanded video includes the following:

1. Break music after Act 1: "Dance to the Music." With Paul Shaffer, Hiram Bullock, Will Lee, and Steve Jordan. See below regarding Dave's "medication" comment to Hiram.

2. Act 2: Sly chats with Dave, Part 1.

3. Break music after Act 2: "Hot Fun in the Summertime."

4. Act 3: Sly chats with Dave, Part 2.

5. Break music after Act 3: "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"; Sly soon joins the band on keyboard and, briefly, vocal.

6. Act 4: Performance with Sly and the band: "If You Want Me to Stay"/"Sing a Simple Song."

7. Act 7: Truncated performance of Sly and the band before the show ends: "I Want to Take You Higher."

From Paul Shaffer interview in Keyboard, September, 1983, with Bob Doerschuk (interview conducted 5-19-83):

We watch a video of Sly Stone on the Letterman show. Shaffer is all eyes and ears as another of his idols runs through a medley of "If You Want Me to Stay" and "Sing a Simple Song" on the screen. Afterwards, he comments, "I was so impressed with how he handled himself on that show. We didn't have a lot of rehearsal time. We never got his Clavinet working, so we called the rental place, and they said, 'We'll send you an electronic thing that has a great Clavinet sound on it.' It turned out to be this little Casio. I said, 'Oh, my God,' but he was cool. He put a wah-wah pedal on it, and he grooved."

And there was more to the experience of playing with Sly Stone than just backing up another funky rock star. "Sly popularized some of those gospel voicings I could never understand when those records came out. I couldn't hear what kind of a voicing it was, but I've since learned it and used it, and there he was playing it." Shaffer's voice hasn't risen at all, but that edge has crept into it again. "I was sort of thrilling," he smiles.

Paul Shaffer interview in "Fi" Magazine, March, 1998 issue (by Bill Mikowski):

Fi: Getting back to Letterman, what were some other memorable guest appearances for you?

PS: Sly Stone...playing organ behind him while he played clavinet. I asked him about that one voicing that he played off of, a suspended gospel sound that I heard in "Dance to the Music." It fascinated me because it forced boundaries of harmony...it forced tension of a suspended chord over everyone else's regular triad. I quizzed him about that and he said, "I heard the Beatles do it." I don't know if he was pulling my leg or not.

On Dave's comment to Hiram re "the medication affecting [his] hearing":
E-mail from Hiram Bullock June 6, 1997:

"I played the Letterman show that day with Sly Stone _with my leg broken and unset._ I didn't go to the hospital until after the show for fear they would have tried to prevent me from playing (they would have; I didn't play again for a week or two)."